Sanjay Dutt withdraws plea to surrender in Pune jail

New Delhi, May 15: Actor Sanjay Dutt on Wednesday withdrew his plea to surrender before the Yerwada jail in Pune and decided to surrender before a special anti-terrorist court in Mumbai.

On Tuesday, Dutt appealed to surrender in Pune, saying he was facing life threat, but decided to withdraw the appeal later. It was unclear when he will surrender although the Supreme Court asked him to surrender by May 16.

Judge G A Sanap had asked the CBI, the prosecuting agency, to file a reply after Dutt filed his application in a designated Tada court in Mumbai, and posted the hearing for Wednesday.

Dutt's application said he wanted to surrender directly either before the authorities of the Yerwada Jail or Arthur Road Jail, for whenever he was arrested and taken to Yerwada Jail previously, he was "chased by the media" and said that vehicles ferrying to jail were being driven at extremely high speed and a minor error by the driver could lead to his death.

Dutt also apprehended a large presence of media persons and fans at the Tada court premises, which increased security risks as it was difficult to keep eyes on every person present at the court premises.

Dutt was convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case and was sentenced to five-year jail term in March. He has already served one-and-half-year jail term and need to undergo the remaining term. His petition seeking review of the Supreme Court's judgment on his conviction and five-year jail term was rejected by the apex court on May 10.